3 dead after NW Indiana stabbing, crash

October 21, 2008

A man today fatally stabbed the boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend, kidnapped his toddler son, then crashed his vehicle into a police car in Portage, Ind., killing himself and the boy, according to police.

The stabbing occurred at about 12:50 a.m. in an apartment building in the 5900 block of Old Porter Road in Portage when Lawrence Hill arrived at the home of an ex-girlfriend and found her with another man, police said.

The woman was unhurt and called police. At about 1:30 a.m. a police officer spotted Hill's Buick Regal in Furnessville headed east on U.S. Highway 12, according to a statement by Indiana State Police Sgt. Ann Wojas. Hill turned his car around and headed back west on U.S. Highway 20, the statement said.

Soon several police cars were trailing the suspect and his son and police set up a roadblock and laid down a spike strip at Beam Street, about six miles east of where the stabbing occurred.

The Buick ran over the spikes, then crashed into a marked Porter County sheriff's deputy's squad car, state police said. The deputy was not in the car during the collision.

Hill, whose last known address was in Chicago, was pronounced dead at the scene. His son was taken to Porter Hospital in Portage, where he too was pronounced dead a short time later.

Hill was released from prison in Illinois in 2001 after serving seven years for aggravated criminal sexual assault and home invasion. Capt. Terry Swickard of the Portage Police Department said that while Hill had a record, his ex-girlfriend had made no complaints against him and had never indicated to police that she was threatened by him.

But Quentin Pops, a friend and neighbor of the boy's mother, said she often confided in him about her abusive ex-boyfriend.

"She had left here a while to get away from him," Pops said. "He was abusive to her and she had told me he even threatened her life. But they had a kid together and so she was trying to make amends."

Neighbors in the Park Place apartment complex in Portage where the woman and her son lived described them as the best of friends. One said the family had fled the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina and had resettled over a year ago.

"I'm just shocked, shocked," said Lewis Jones, who lives across the hall from where the attack occurred. "She was a good woman and she loved her son very much. You could see that."

Car of man who stabbed ex-girlfriend's boyfriend to death, kidnapped his toddler son, then crashed his vehicle into a police car at U.S. Highway 20 and Beam Street, killing himself and the boy, according to police. (Indiana State Police handout)